Of course, the big oil and coal companies have spent a lot of cash over the years trying to deny the reality of climate change, all while extracting and burning more and more fossil fuels for profits. For the world to meet its COP21 commitments (and remain hospitable to civilization), most of those fuels have to stay in the ground, and we need to shift our reliance to sustainable power sources.

The fossil-fuel divestment movement is all about targeting the one thing that coal, natural-gas, and oil companies care about: money. It calls on institutions and organizations around the world to sell all their dirty fossil-fuel holdings.

Ben & Jerry’s—along with a lot of other organizations—is hopeful for a clean-energy future, and there are some signs showing it is within reach.

Here are 8 facts that prove people are sick of giving money to an antiquated industry that doesn’t care about the planet or the life it supports:

There have been other divestment movements, such as those against the tobacco and gambling industries, and the apartheid government in South Africa. But none that have gotten as much traction as quickly as this one.

4. It’s not just environmentalists anymore, it’s everybody.

Concern about the future of our planet is something that connects all of us. So it’s no surprise that the divestment campaign has a diverse range of supporters—everything from religious organizations and for-profit corporations to entire cities and statewide pension funds.

5. People pulling their money out of fossil fuels has caused stock prices to plummet.

7. Some surprising people support divestment.

Hank Paulson, secretary of the treasury under George W. Bush and former CEO of Goldman Sachs (i.e. a professional moneymaker who potentially has a heart incapable of bleeding) has likened it to the financial crisis, saying, “We’ve seen and felt the costs of underestimating the financial bubble. Let’s not ignore the climate bubble.” And in a hugely symbolic move, the heirs of John D. Rockefeller (who founded Standard Oil, which later became ExxonMobil) have sold off two of their charities’ holdings in ExxonMobil and other fossil-fuel companies. Yep, even the family that was made ridiculously rich by oil has seen the writing on the wall.

8. Green begets green: Investing in green energy is making people a heck of a lot of money.

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About Ben & Jerry's

From a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont, to far-off places with names we sometimes mispronounce, the journey that began in 1978 with 2 guys and the ice cream business they built is as legendary as the ice cream is euphoric.